What are benefits for veterans?

CDR P, USN	Depends on how long you served. Someone with 20 years will get a lot more benefits than someone with 4 years.

Pete T	go to www.va.gov , mouse over veteran services and click on benefits booklet . That will tell you all you about it.

Ben	free medical care is the biggest one. they also get collage paid for for the first 2 years for there children and for 4 years for themselves. there are many more but those are the 2 biggies.

HDH	If you serve a normal enlistment (4 to 6 years) you get the GI Bill which will cover 4 years at a public university, a VA home loan which doesn't require you to pay a down payment, Veteran's preference for for a Federal job, a year or two of "Transition Assistance" for help with finding a job, two years of access to the PX and Commissary on base, and limited VA health care for a very short time unless you have a disability from your time in service. I think that's about it.

Mark	I retired at age 45 from the Navy. During the 25 years I was in, I lived frugally. I managed to squirrel away about a third of everything I made. When I got out, I had saved a bit over four years income at the rate of pay at which I retired. I figured that when I got out I'd be "unemployed" for a while. It seemed like the prudent thing to do. I got a couple more degrees mostly on the GI Bill. I had 25 years of military experience. I had 20 years of management experience as a Naval Officer. I had about 8 years experience working at the Pentagon. I had a recent DoD security clearance. I had an education largely paid for by the military. I started a second career as contract manager for government contracts for a management consulting firm. With the income from that job I purchased a house with a VA-insured loan and paid it off in ten years. After 12 years on that job I retired again and did a little traveling. Being retired, I can travel just about anywhere I want for free. Then I settle down for a few years and puttered around the house. But that got a little boring so I moved into a Veterans Home. I rented my place out to an officer stationed at a nearby Air Force base. The rental income pays for my stay at the Home. That leaves my Navy pension and the retirement income from my second second career pretty much untouched. Medical and Dental are paid for. So is entertainment (if I want), transportation (if I want), and just about everything else... except for expendables. I do have to pay for my own Internet service and phone. Oh, and I pay my own car insurance, maintenance, and fuel costs. I also purchase my clothes... although I could also get those for free too. In my second career I had an opportunity to talk with some of those guys who didn't stay in. They got their bachelors degrees... or masters degrees... about 25 years before I did. They got into the civilian sector and some of them made it up their respective corporate ladders to those 800 square-foot offices way up in those glassed-in office buildings. Some of them had dreams of "getting away" for a bit... living a life of adventure and challenge. Some had simple dreams like hitting a little white ball down the middle of the fairway on some exotic golf course. Others wanted to learn to SCUBA dive. A few of the more adventurous thought about taking up sky diving. The problem was that they never seemed to have the time or the money to do those things. I did those things when I was in the Navy and got paid for doing it. And I did it when I was young enough to enjoy it. Today some of those guys are probably still up in those offices working 40-50 hours a week. I get up in the morning pretty much whenever I want. Breakfast is served between 6:30 and 8:30, but I can cook my own if I run late. I usually get up around 5:40, jog to the fitness center, work out for an hour, wander up to the dining room and have a light breakfast. Then I come back to my room and play on the computer for a couple of hours. Then (in the summer) I wander over to the pool and put in a couple thousand meters. Then I lie around the pool until about 2:00 and work on my tan. Then I'll shower and dress and wander back to my room where (depending on what's going on) I'll go back to the computer, get ready for the "theater" (I've seen Bill Cosby, Vicki Lawerence, Paula Poundstone, the Smothers Brothers, and a few other names from the past as well as the present... for free), or I might go back to the fitness center or the gym in town. And it's all free. Oh, you've heard about the lousy meals served at "retirement homes?" I'll admit that I'm not particularly enthused about every item on the menu, but they do have about 1000 residents here and you can't expect to be able to please all of them all the time. But next week the menu includes things like coconut tilapia, beef enchilada, sweet and sour chicken, ham quiche, meatloaf, citrus salmon... and there's always a salad bar. And, if I get bored, I have 90 days leave a year. I'm not averse to spending a little time traveling. I occasionally go to reunions. Maybe I'll go to Hawaii. I still like to SCUBA dive.